According to this year’s “calling in sick” report by CareerBuilder, one in four employers has caught an employee faking it because of something found on social media. And one in five bosses has fired employees for calling in with fake excuses.
Lisa A. Frasier
KRT

According to this year’s “calling in sick” report by CareerBuilder, one in four employers has caught an employee faking it because of something found on social media. And one in five bosses has fired employees for calling in with fake excuses.
Lisa A. Frasier
KRT

‘Accidentally got on a plane’: Workers give all kinds of reasons for calling in sick

If you’re going to call in sick, make sure you don’t post pictures of yourself at a concert.

According to this year’s “calling in sick” report by CareerBuilder, one in four employers has caught an employee faking it because of something found on social media.

And one in five bosses has fired employees for calling in with fake excuses.

Using information from a Harris poll, CareerBuilder accumulated some of the odd excuses employees have given for missing work. Some reasons are believable, such as the employee who said her legs fell asleep when she was sitting in the bathroom — she stood, fell and broke her ankle.

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Others are just plain unbelievable: The employee “accidentally got on a plane.”

This year’s report said 28 percent of employees have called in sick sometime in the past year, even though they were feeling well. That was down from 32 percent a year earlier.

Some of those playing hooky were honest. They said they simply didn’t feel like going to work. One said she woke up in a good mood and didn’t feel like blowing it.

About three in 10 admitted they just wanted a day to relax, about two in 10 wanted to catch up on sleep, and about one in 10 stayed home because of bad weather.

The poll got responses from 3,103 employees and 2,203 hiring managers or human resource professionals. It was taken in August and early September.

Of interest to employee benefit plan designers, half the employees said they had paid-time-off programs that let them take time off when they choose, but 23 percent of them said they still felt obligated to make up excuses.

For the record, here are some of the “dubious excuses” reported:

▪ Just put a casserole in the oven.

▪ Plastic surgery for enhancement purposes needed some “tweaking” to get it just right.

▪ Was at the casino all weekend and still had money left to play with on Monday morning.

▪ Had a “lucky night” and didn’t know where he was.

▪ Got stuck in the blood pressure machine at the grocery store and couldn’t get out.

▪ Had a gallstone and wanted to heal holistically.

One in three employers said they checked on absent employees to confirm they were telling the truth if they had doubts.

Survey results indicated that employees in professional and business services and sales were the most frequent “calling in sick” workers. Employees in retail, leisure and hospitality were the least likely to call in sick, possibly because they are the most likely to not have paid sick days, CareerBuilder noted.